The Italy Wine Project

Regions / Campania

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Aversa DOC

A white built around the Asprinio grape and the alberata aversana, a training system where vines climb poplar trees to 15 meters and are picked from tall ladders. The wine is as sharp as the name suggests: pale, low in alcohol (11 to 12%), with green apple, lemon, white flowers and a faint bitter almond note over searing acidity and a salty finish. The spumante versions make sense of that acidity and were the traditional fizz of Naples. It's a curiosity and a piece of agricultural heritage as much as a wine, and the tree-trained vineyards are disappearing.

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Bottles I'm chasing

ProducerWinePriceBuy
I Borboni
Aversa Asprinio 'Vite Maritata'
From tree-trained vines, as the name (married vine) says; bone-dry, lemony, salty and bracing, made by the Numeroso family in Lusciano.
$20 to $26Wine-Searcher
I Borboni
Aversa Asprinio Spumante 'Cripto'
Traditional-method Asprinio; green apple, bread crust and high acid, the historic Neapolitan sparkler.
$22 to $30Wine-Searcher
Grotta del Sole
Aversa Asprinio
Larger Campi Flegrei house with a US importer; a simpler, still version with lime and green apple.
$14 to $18Wine-Searcher